Wal-Mart made an agreement with the Labor Department to improve the safety conditions for their employees who work with trash compactors and certain cleaning chemicals. The settlement affects more than 2,800 stores in 28 states, including a store in Rochester, NY where an inspection conducted by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revealed serious hazards and required the retail giant to pay a $190,000 fine for repairs. According to the federal settlement, Wal-Mart will improve worker training programs to address all the safety hazards.
Workers compensation is a no- fault insurance
When Arkansas employees are injured at work, they do not have to prove employer negligence in order to receive benefits from workers compensation. Some people may falsely believe that if they are injured at work or contract an illness from working conditions, they must show that their employer is at fault.
Four categories of disability
The primary role of disability benefits is to compensate you for wages lost during the period your injury or illness impedes your ability to work. Disabilities fit into one of four specific categories and depend on whether they are determined by a doctor as total or partial, temporary or permanent. Below is a description of each category:
- Temporary total disability — This type of disability impedes your ability to work for a limited amount of time. Although you cannot work now, your condition is expected to improve so that you can go back to work in the future.
- Temporary partial disability — This type of disability keeps you from performing some of your regular job duties for a limited amount of time. This may mean that you are able to do parts of your job now and you expect your condition to improve to allow you perform as you did prior to your injury.
- Permanent total disability — This category of disability prevents you from returning to work at all. This does not mean that you are helpless or even medically incapacitated to fit into this category — you just are unable to do the job you had when you were injured or a similar job.
- Permanent partial disability — This type of disability occurs when you sustain permanent damage, but it only partially impedes your ability to work.
You can count on solid legal advice from workers compensation attorneys. We have more than 40 years of legal experience and are here to serve your best interests.
